Sunday, January 18, 2015

Houston we have a problem!

Dollhouse construction had come to a total stand still while I waited on supplies to arrive. Although it was lovely coming home everyday to a little parcel on the door step, they never seemed to arrive in the order I wanted them to.

Finally, I thought I had all I need to go ahead start the finishing on the house. My husband has been out of town for the last ten days so I set up shop in the living room ( I won't tell if you don't) only to find out that a grave error had been made during the cutting and assembly part of the house. The front had been put on upside down leaving the smaller windows at the bottom, the taller windows on the top and the doorway had been cut. God bless me, not being that bright it took a minute or two after building the first transom window for the front door to contemplate why I had a 6cmish window, a 5mm transom and needed to make a 16.9cm door all to fit in a space that measured about 17cm. Finally the light went off it is UPSIDE DOWN.
So here is the newly cut dollhouse front, unfortunately I didn't have any 5mm ply left so it was made out of 5mm mdf that is black on one side. No matter, I will paint it twice. My husband comes home tomorrow so I can work on the dollhouse in the living room for one more day, I just have to make sure I do a really good job hoovering up the sawdust.

Here is what I was working on while waiting for the mail to arrive. I just found and bought a Jane Newman single bed, isn't it lovely?...and have been constructing a tiny English paper pieced quilt out of little hexagons. I don't think I thought about how fiddly it was going to be. I am about half done but have put it away for a bit. It is the perfect project for doing while watching t.v, but then so is dollhouse construction if your husband is out of town.

12 comments:

Hi Sculptress! I know that you must have been feeling a bit of panic when the discovery was made but you Done Good! Your house is really zooming along and I love the tiny quilt that you are in the process of completing. How enchanting! :D

I think everyone has a "hiccup" or two on their first scratch build...in my case, I had to re-cut the windows to make them larger, IN SITU, with a jigsaw (since I had already used wood strips and plaster to fake a "banded stucco" look on the outside of the house). I couldn't find the right size windows, my attempts to make them failed (really badly), and my best course of action was to buy some similar-sized windows, cut the holes a bit bigger to fit, and re-plaster (A LOT) around the cut areas. It was hard, messy work (plaster dust is awful stuff). Plus, the house wound up weighing about 60 pounds, which is probably due in part to using so much plaster. (Note to self: switch to micro scale.)

And I hear you on waiting for supplies. I've delayed starting scratch build #3 until I have ALL of the components, for precisely that reason.

This is actually scratch build 1 1/2" I am most done my little Georgian house but am having some problems with the electrics so have put it on hold. As soon as I received the English version of Lea's book though, I couldn't wait to give it a go.

My little Georgian probably weighs a ton. I am hoping this one is lighter when finished. FYI- I have done a couple of micro scales and they are wonderful fun.

Glad you manage to sort out the problem. That lightbulb moment is always a positive thing to happen. It is lovely to have lots of space when you're working, living rooms are quite good for that ;-) On the chair I spotted a staircase with quite a nice turned banister. That will look great when it is in the house.

Hi Neen, Thanks so much, I am following Lea Frisoni's lovely book.Oh and the quilt is fabric but you first use tiny paper hexagons as templates, cover them in material, sew them together and then remove the paper pieces hence Paper piecing, can get a little fiddly this size though.

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About Me

45 year-old mother of four, step-mother to two. Grandmother of five, Owner of two increasingly finicky felines and one very bad beagle. Partnered with one very long suffering but infinitely patient husband.